Firefly Friday Fics
by Jade II
Summary: A whole bunch of short stories and scenes written in response to fanfic challenges at LiveJournal, mostly from Firefly Friday. UPDATED with "Inara leaves" ficlet. Reviews much appreciated :D
1. A Mouth Twitch And A Twinkle

Challenge:   
100 to 1000 words containing the exchange:   
_"Don't kill anyone."_   
_"You take away all my fun."_****

**A Mouth Twitch And A Twinkle**

Wash was dozing off. Finally dozing off after what had been a long, hard day of partly escaping from the crew's latest would-be employers, but mainly trying to keep Zoe even halfway comfortable and happy. 

At the moment she was lying in bed next to him, hogging all the covers so she could cover herself, including her meanwhile very large belly, from head to toe. At any other time he would have tried to pull at least some of them away from her; however, pregnancy had made her extremely tetchy, and disturbing her when she was trying to get to sleep would not be a good idea. The Wrath of Zoe was something to be feared. 

He could tell that she wasn't asleep yet. She had that expression on her face that meant she was concentrating very hard on something, and right now it was on becoming unconscious. When she was asleep... well, peaceful wasn't always the way she looked, but vulnerable certainly was. He only very occasionally saw her look vulnerable apart from when she was asleep, and no one else _ever_ saw her look that way, except maybe Mal. 

But no, right now her expression was neither peaceful nor vulnerable. It was more... extremely frustrated. 

She sighed in exasperation and opened her eyes for the hundredth time since they had gone to bed, a good two hours ago now. Seeing that Wash was still awake too, and looking at her intently, she rearranged the covers yet again and angrily pushed the hair off her face. 

"You know, I never thought someone kicking you from the inside could be so gorram uncomfortable. I think I'm gettin' bruises on all my internal organs." 

"Well, we could see the doctor, maybe he cou-" 

"No, he'll be asleep." 

"But if-" 

"Wash, I said no! I can't go cryin' to the doctor for every little thing. I'm fine, really." 

Wash raised his eyebrows. Zoe ignored him and turned to lie on her back. 

Wash watched her. Her eyes were open and she was drumming her fingers on the bed, so he knew she wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. 

After a few minutes she sighed again and stopped the drumming. Another few minutes and she gave another sigh and closed her eyes. 

Maybe she would actually go to sleep this time, Wash thought, being careful not to breathe too loudly or make a movement of any kind. If only he could see her face properly... he couldn't make out her expression from this angle. 

When her breathing slowed down and became more regular about ten minutes later, he decided that she was out. Lying back in a more comfortable position, he closed his eyes in relief. 

"That's it." 

He opened his eyes again and squinted at Zoe, who was now sitting bolt upright. 

"I need something to drink," she told him, standing up carefully. She walked over to his side of the bunk and grabbed his robe. 

"D'you want me to...?" he asked groggily, propping himself up on his elbow. 

"I think I can get a glass of water on my own," she told him, then cursing because she couldn't find the sleeves. 

"Okay..." 

Zoe finally managed to get the robe on. She hastily donned some footwear and made her way to the ladder, which she was far to big to climb, in Wash's opinion, but she had absolutely refused to move to a passenger dorm, and what could you do then without incurring some serious Wrath? 

"Zoe," he said, sitting up properly. 

"What?" she asked, pausing with her foot on the first rung to look back at him. 

"Just... don't kill anyone," he told her. No one deserved a Zoe in a bad mood. 

He thought he saw the side of her mouth twitch just the tiniest bit. "You take away all my fun," she said, a little of the twinkle returning to her eyes. 

Wash smiled at this and lay back, listening to the sound of her combat boots (only kind of shoes she owned, she was always proud to admit) on the metal rungs. 

A mouth twitch and a twinkle from his favorite Zoe. 

His long, hard day seemed a whole lot nicer already. 


	2. A Woman Of Many Talents

Challenge: 100 to 1000 words on surprises.****

**A Woman Of Many Talents**

"You think he'll like 'em?" 

"Kaylee, he'll love them." 

"But the cap'n always says he don't like surprises." 

Zoe smiled. "The kinda surprises where a deal falls through, or suddenly someone's pointin' a gun at your head, yeah. This, he's gonna love." 

Kaylee beamed and put the finishing touches on the flower she was painting on the kitchen unit. "Well, I sure hope so." 

"Sure hope what? 'Cause I sure hope there's some food left for me somewhere 'round here..." said Mal, stepping into the room. 

"Cap'n!" Kaylee turned around and smiled at him. "Surprise!" she said, gesturing towards her newly painted handiwork. 

Mal seemed speechless for a moment, but there was a smile on his face. "Well, Kaylee," he said finally, "You are certainly handy with a paintbrush." He nodded, grinning. "A woman of many talents." 

"Aww..." Kaylee blushed. "Thanks, Cap'n." 

He smiled at her fondly. "No problem at all, li'l Kaylee," he said, before sitting down to a meal of mushy protein. 


	3. Surprisin', Ain't It?

Challenge: 100 to 1000 words on surprises.****

**Surprisin', Ain't It?**

Zoe sat on her bed and sighed in relief as she pulled her boots off. She had been on her feet since the early hours of the morning, but had finally been allowed to take a break now that their latest job was done. Mal was around somewhere, but everyone else was off enjoying themselves on the planet. Zoe was much too tired for that. 

After letting her aching feet rest for a moment, Zoe stood up again to brush her teeth. Catching sight of herself in the mirror, she took a step closer to it and sighed yet again. She looked absolutely terrible. Almost as bad as she had in the war, though there had been more important things to worry about then, so she hadn't known or cared what she looked like most of the time. 

She put her forehead against the cool glass and closed her eyes. 

That was when she felt the gun being pressed against the back of her head. 

"Surprise." 

Her eyes snapped open and her eyebrows shot up. "Jayne?" 

She heard the gun being cocked. "Surprisin', ain't it?" 

"What are you doing?" 

"Put your hands up on the mirror where I can see 'em." 

Slowly, she complied. "How much money are you gettin' for this?" 

"A whole lot more than you got, that's for gorram sure. Enough to get my fam'ly off that hellhole of a planet and give them a decent place to live with some to spare. Someone out there has got one big grudge against you and the cap'n." 

"You plannin' on killin' the cap'n too?" 

"Already have done." 

Despite her best efforts, a shiver ran down her spine. "What about loyalty? What about all the things we've _done_ for you?" 

"Oh, I do appreciate all that, don't get me wrong... But a man's gotta have his priorities. And I'm afraid my fam'ly is more... prioritized than you." 

"Jayne..." 

"No more talkin' now. I've only been doin' it so far as a courtesy to you, 'cause of all you've _done_ for me an' all. I have to get it done afore the others come back." 

Zoe had a mental image of Wash coming back to find her dead body and had to blink hard to fight back a tear. Then she stood up straight and proud and banished all emotions from her mind. "Okay. Do it then." She didn't doubt for a moment that he would. 

"Right." Jayne pressed the gun harder against her head. 

Zoe concentrated all her thoughts on her husband, heard the gun fire, and then thought nothing at all.   



	4. A Captured Moment

Challenge: 100 to 1000 words set during or immediately after "Serenity."****

**A Captured Moment**

"Zoe's out on a deal, I always worry," Wash had told Simon earlier. 

Now they were in their bunk, in the process of tearing each other's clothes off. And here, yet again, was proof that he had just cause to worry. 

There was a new dent in her armor. 

He tried to shrug it off as he undid the clasp and pulled the armor off. It had served its purpose, that was all that mattered. He should be grateful for it, really, it had prevented something much worse from happening, after all, and anyway, it shouldn't be important right now... 

There was a large bruise underneath the dent. 

It didn't need to be worse, he decided. It was bad enough already. 

Zoe had noticed that he was distracted. She caressed his face, lifted it so he was looking at hers and could see the question in her eyes. 

"New bruise," he said. 

She smiled. "Got shot," she said, shrugging slightly with one shoulder. 

Wash wished he could just smile and shrug. "Zo..." 

"Shh." She put her finger to his lips. "It's okay, Wash. It don't even hurt." 

Wash poked the edge of the bruise gently. Zoe hissed. Wash raised his eyebrows. 

"Okay, maybe just a little," she conceded. 

Of course it hurt, how coud it not, all purple and green and blemishing her skin, reminding him just how close he came to losing her almost every day, making him feel sick and wish for something better for them, wishes that he knew were pointless. 

"I hope you killed the guy that did it." 

"Sure did." 

"I just worry about you, is all." 

"I know you do, honey." She kissed him lightly on the lips. "But there's really no need." 

"But there is!" He raised himself into a sitting position, pulling her up with him. "This," -he pointed at the bruise- "This is just proof that there _is_ a need for me to worry. This, or, or when you come back with holes in you, or burns from where the bullets have just missed you. You have so many close calls, Zoe, and I just can't help being afraid that one day it'll be _too_ close." 

"Wash..." There was pain in her eyes now, and Wash regretted causing it, but he had had to say something. 

"I just wish..." 

"That things could be better." She looked at him and he knew she understood, had understood all along. "That we could grow old together and die in our beds when we're ancient an' wrinkled, that we could raise our children somewhere they don't need to know 'bout guns and violence, that your dinosaurs wouldn't get chipped from bein' thrown around so much... It's a nice dream, Wash. It's somethin' to aspire to. But just 'cause we have that goal don't mean we can reach it." 

He nodded. "I know." 

And knowing was all that mattered, really. Knowing that she understood, that she knew that he knew that things would never be perfect, but that knowing that didn't mean they would give up hope. 

"Besides," He smiled, the usual mirth returning to his face. "You know how much Kaylee loves to help fix the dinos. It'd break her heart if they were all safe an' whole all the time." 

Zoe laughed. 

And Wash smiled and shrugged and made love to his wife, he being careful not to touch her bruise, her ignoring the pain when he did, and they lay inside a captured moment of happiness for the rest of the night.   
  


Thanks to shyday for making me think a little more about that dent in Zoe's armor :) 


	5. Her Favorite Kind Of Laughter

Challenge: 100 to 1000 words about laughter.****

**Her Favorite Kind Of Laughter**

There were many kinds of laughter, Inara knew. 

There was the genuine, uncontrollable laughter when the crew was eating a meal together, telling stories and jokes and enjoying each others' company. 

There was the half faked way she laughed at her clients' jokes, doing her job, making them believe that she thought they were the funniest man in the 'verse, even when they weren't. 

There was the way she laughed in disbelief at some of Jayne's... utterances. 

The way she scoffed at some of Mal's more ridiculous suggestions. 

But she had never before experienced the kind of nervous, yet happy and relieved laughter, almost like crying, that was coming from her mouth now. Now that, after hours of cowering in fear with River in one of Serenity's many hidden spaces, Mal was helping them out, grinning from ear to ear. 

Now she was hugging him tightly, still laughing that strange, happy laugh, unable to help herself. 

He was hugging her back, and she knew that she would have to push him away soon. But for the moment she was laughing, hugging, happy, ignoring, forgetting... 

And she decided that this was her favorite kind of laughter. 


	6. Mine Is An Evil Laugh

Challenge: 100 to 1000 words about laughter.****

**Mine Is An Evil Laugh**

"Ha ha ha! Mine is an evil laugh!" 

Zoe scrutinized the dinosaur. "Don't sound that evil to me." 

"Zoe, come on..." Wash made the dino climb up to her bare shoulder and growl in her ear. "Grrr! This is one evil T-Rex." 

Zoe somehow managed to laugh and look skeptical and like she was enjoying herself at the same time. 

"He could cannibalize you without a morsel of remorse," Wash said seriously. 

"No he couldn't." Zoe took the dinosaur and narrowed her eyes at it. "He ain't human." 

"Oh." Wash looked slightly disappointed for a moment, then brightened. "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to do it..." 

He pounced on her, and their laughter echoed in the narrow confines of their bunk. 


	7. Big Damn Heroes

**Big Damn Heroes**

"You certain we should be doin' this, sir?" Zoe's boots thudded on the dry earth as they made their way towards the small cluster of lights in the distance. "It's not just 'cause you wanna play the big damn hero, is it? Because you know they may actually be safe here, the place is so cut off." 

"I'm pretty certain. Not certain it's what's best, but I'm fair certain it's what's right. An' sometimes that's more important." Mal squinted into the distance. "'Sides, what if it weren't the Shepherd got shot? What if it'd been one of us normal folks who don't got magic ident cards? We need us a doctor, Zoe." 

"It ain't really the doctor we need to be concerned about." 

"I know, but he an' his sister come as a pair. And even takin' that fact into account, I ain't as concerned about them as I am 'bout the preacher." 

"It was a little unsettlin'" 

"Man's got a secret, Zoe, one he's not keen to share. And any secret that'll get him that kinda treatment from the Alliance can't be small." 

"You want for me to keep a closer eye on him?" 

Mal nodded, still looking ahead. They were coming up on the edge of the village. "Much appreciate it." 

They rounded a corner and stopped, staring at the sight before them. 

Mal cleared his throat and looked at her sideways. "That look to you like the doc and his sister is about to be burned at the stake?" 

Zoe nodded. "Sure does, sir." 

"So, not that safe here after all?" 

"Apparently not, sir." 

"That's what I thought." He drew his gun. "I guess it's time for some rescuin', then." 

Zoe followed him as he smiled and pushed his way through the crowd, looking for all the world as though he was having the time of his life. 

"Well, look at this!" he said loudly to the assembled villagers. "Appears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us?" he asked, glancing at Zoe. 

She grinned. "Big damn heroes, sir." 


	8. Stamping Twirling Merriment

Challenge from Firefly Friday: "favorite things"   
Challenge from The Firefly Chronicles: "music"****

**Stamping Twirling Merriment**

"Kaylee, turn that ruttin' noise off!" 

Kaylee's face fell. "But Cap'n, it's my favorite music!" 

"I don't care if it was written by monkeys and sung by naked women, some of us are trying to--" Mal stopped talking abruptly. 

Kaylee stuck her head out of the shuttle she'd been fixing. "Cap'n?" 

"Uh..." 

Kaylee stepped onto the catwalk and leaned over the railing to see what had the captain so confounded. 

River was dancing. 

Careening around the bay, combat boots stomping to the rhythm of the music, a happy smile on her face. 

She held out her hands to Mal but he took a step back from her, looking slightly overwhelmed. Not missing a beat, River looked up at Kaylee instead. 

Kaylee grinned widely and turned the music up before hurrying down the steps. River grabbed her hands as soon as she reached the bottom and they danced around the cargo, spinning wildly in circles and shrieking with laughter. 

"What's goin' on?" Jayne's voice boomed across the hold as he entered, Wash and Zoe close behind him. 

Kaylee slowed the spinning slightly so that the room would stop blurring enough for her to see them clearly. "Annoyin' the cap'n!" she called, grinning. 

Jayne's face lit up. "Now anythin' that does that, I gotta be a part of!" 

Kaylee smiled and let go of River so that Jayne could dance with her, grabbing Wash for her own partner instead. He didn't seem too put out about that.   


Mal watched them from the side. "Why is it that folk are so eager to annoy me?" he asked as Zoe came up beside him. 

"Couldn't rightly say, sir." She smiled affectionately at Wash, who was showing Kaylee some kind of crazy dance. 

"Is it 'cause I talk about space monkeys when I'm annoyed? It's 'cause of the monkeys, isn't it! Everyone loves the space monkeys so much, they annoy me just to hear about 'em." 

"Yes sir. That must be it."   


"Simon!" Kaylee said, catching sight of him and Inara in the doorway. "Come dance!" 

Simon seemed uncertain, but a gentle nudge from Inara sent him heading for Kaylee, a shy smile valiantly fighting its way to his face. 

Wash let go of Kaylee and jigged over to Zoe, looking at her with playfully pleading eyes. She laughed and took his hand and they whirled off to the other side of the hold together. 

Mal sighed. 

"Aren't you going to dance?" 

He turned to see Inara standing next to him. 

"Not really in a dancin' kind of mood right now." 

"It's Kaylee's favorite music." 

"Yeah, well it ain't mine." 

"What is yours?" 

He reflected on this for a second. "Don't really have one." He shrugged. "Prefer the quiet. You know," he said, playing up his annoyance, "_Silence._" 

Inara looked into his eyes for a moment, then held out her hand. 

"Aren't you going to dance?" she asked again. 

Mal sighed melodramatically and shrugged. "If you insist." 

They smiled. Then they joined the others in the frenzy of stamping feet and twirling figures and mindless merriment. 


	9. The Brightest Ray Of Sunshine

Challenge: 100 to 1000 words on virtue and vice.****

**The Brightest Ray Of Sunshine**

"Now I ain't usually one for fancy words an' talkin' and such, but I'm gonna say some, because I think Kaylee would want me to." 

Mal looked around at the assembled crew and saw them trying to hold back tears. He returned his gaze to the tombstone Jayne had crafted; he didn't want their expressions to make it harder for him to keep his emotions in check. 

"Kaylee..." he continued, "Kaylee was the most brightest ray of sunshine I ever had the fortune of meetin'. Full of cheer an' smiles an' love an' all manner of other kinds o' virtues. She always fixed up Serenity as easy as snappin' her fingers. Fixed a lot of things about her crew an' all, I'd reckon, kept caring about us even when we thought we didn't need it. You know, I think the only vice our Kaylee had was the one she used to clamp that thing in the engine. An' possibly strawberries. An' pretty things. Kaylee always appreciated things that were... pretty. So here, Kaylee..." 

Mal took the bouquet of brightly colored flowers from Zoe and carefully placed them on the lonely little mound of earth that was Kaylee's grave. 

"Have yourself somethin' pretty." 


	10. Memories of Guns

Challenge: 100 to 1000 words on childhood****

**Memories of Guns**

"I can't wait to find out who she'll be. See her live, grow up. You think she'll be a pilot?" 

"She may be." 

Wash and Zoe sat on their bed, gazing at the baby girl Wash held cradled in his arms. 

"Or she may be a doctor, or a mechanic, or something we _don't_ have on this ship. But she'll be our daughter." 

"What'll it be like for her, growing up here on Serenity? I mean, where I grew up was so far removed from this... I just can't imagine it."   


_The first time she remembers seeing someone shot is when she was four. She remembers blood on her daddy's shirt, and Kaylee crying. She remembers having her nose pressed up against the window to the infirmary, trying to see what Simon was doing to him. She remembers being tucked her into bed that night, and hearing her momma cry when she was pretending to be asleep._

_She remembers Momma holding Daddy's hand until he got better._   


"You'll find out. It'll be hell, having her crawlin' 'round all over the place. But it'll be great, knowin' that there's not a single soul on Serenity who doesn't love her. She'll learn the things that're important, not the things some guy in a suit thinks she should learn. She'll see the galaxy, when most other kids can only dream about it." 

"I could teach her to fly." 

"Yeah. Everyone should be able to fly."   


_The first time she got shot she was eight. Running from someone, she can't remember who, she got hit in the leg. It hurt like hell, and they couldn't get back to Serenity right away. Jayne bandaged it, to make it not bleed so much. She remembers Momma telling her how brave she was. Daddy said how proud he was of her._

_She still has the scar. She likes to show it off._   


"But what about all the bad stuff?" 

"You mean the guns an' the hidin' an' the runnin'?" 

Wash nodded.   


_The first time she shot someone she was eleven. Momma was losing a fight with some man, so she snuck out from her hiding place and took the gun from a dead guy's hand. She hit the attacker in the side of his throat. She was upset because when she practised shooting with Mal she hit her mark better. Momma was upset for some other reason. But the next day Mal gave her her very first gun._

_Sometimes she was allowed to go out on jobs after that. It felt good to know that people would trust her with their lives._   


"We'll keep her safe." 

"We won't be able to do that all the time." 

"No. But we'll keep her happy."   


_Sometimes people ask her if it doesn't bother her to have memories full of guns. She remembers things that didn't involve guns. Sitting down at the table to meals filled with laughter. Kaylee teaching her to make stuffed animals. Daddy's joy the first time she landed Serenity all by herself. Helping the shepherd make pastry for pies. The birth of her baby brother. Beating Jayne at horseshoes. Waking up in the middle of the night from a nightmare and sitting in the common area with Momma, talking while everyone else slept. Playing dressup in Inara's clothes. Birthday parties, the chocolate her parents somehow managed to find for her every year. Sitting in front of Mal on a gallopping horse, shrieking with laughter. Listening to people's heartbeats with Simon's stethoscope. River telling her bedtime stories._

_Hugs, kisses, family, love. A whole bunch of plastic dinosaurs._

_The memories of guns don't matter._

_She couldn't imagine a happier childhood._   


Wash looked at his wife and daughter, both now sound asleep. He kissed them both on the forehead. Then he lay back, imagining the future. 

He couldn't wait. 


	11. Changing Christmas Conduct

Challenge: 100 to 1000 words on change.****

**Changing Christmas Conduct**

"Zoe? What's wrong?" 

"Nothin'." Zoe hurried down the ramp, right past Wash and into the rain that was cascading down from the sky. 

He hurried to catch her up. "You're lying." 

"Yep." She kept walking for a few seconds before stopping abruptly and turning to look at him. She sighed. "It's Mal." 

"He use up all the hot water again?" 

"That too." She walked a few more paces, then stopped again. "Kaylee tried to talk to him about Christmas." 

"Ahh. He wasn't too pleased?" 

Zoe shook her head. "Every year she tries, and every year she ends up cryin' in the engine room and he ends up stalkin' around the ship in the worst kinda mood possible. It ain't right." 

"Maybe someone should advise Kaylee to give it up?" 

"No. It ain't Kaylee that's the problem. It's that gorram faith issue the cap'n has." 

Wash nodded. "The issue where he takes issue with people who have it." 

Zoe sighed again. "I tried to talk to him about it once, you know. First Christmas after Serenity Valley. Thought it might be good for him to get into the spirit of things. He very near bit my head off. Complete turnabout from Christmas in the trenches, where he'd get us all to sing dirty carols to annoy the Feds. Losin' the war made him lose his faith, an' losin' his faith made him change. An' sometimes I just wish he'd change back. Wash," she said, her eyes betraying this rare moment of vulnerability, "Promise me you'll never change." 

He took her hands in his. "I'll never change," he said seriously. He squeezed her hands. "Except for my shirt, because it's wet, and all my other shirts would get jealous if I favored just one." 

Zoe rolled her eyes, amused, and they resumed walking down the street, one of her hands still tightly intertwined with his. 

A few minutes later the sun came out. 


	12. Rage

Challenge (from ff_chronicles): 100 to 1500 words on uncontrollable anger****

**Rage**

Zoe had just got up when Mal gave her the letter. She read it as she was munching on the foul tasting protein bar that was their standard breakfast ration. When she was done she wanted to throw it all back up again, but she forced herself not to. It wouldn't help, and food was too precious to go wasting like that. 

Her family was dead. 

The ink was stained from her sister's tears. Her sister who had left the ship for a few days while they were in port to sit an entrance exam for flight school and had come back to find the whole town killed by Reavers. 

There were too many details, Zoe thought. She didn't want to know how many bodies her sister had seen, or what exactly she had found when she got back to the ship. She didn't need to see the words "even little Tommy." She didn't want to know how the Alliance was trying to hush it up, pretending that something like this could _never_ happen on one of _their_ moons, or how they were refusing to pay an ounce of compensation to the families of the people killed in their supposedly "safe" docks. She didn't want to feel so bad when her sister said "I wish you were here." 

That didn't stop her from reading the letter again and again until Mal touched her arm and asked if she was okay. 

"Yeah," she said. She tucked the letter into her boot. "Fine." 

She didn't pay much attention in the trenches that day; she was just too numb. Finally, when her cheek got burned from a bullet almost missing it, Mal sent her to plant some mines. 

Planting mines was something the newbies got to do every once in a while; not quite as dangerous as sitting in the trenches getting shot at, and mind numbingly boring. Plant the mines and active them, be careful not to step on them after, do the same for the next lot, and so on and so forth. Zoe didn't care. She didn't feel like caring about anything much right now. 

She was just about to press the button to active her fourth set of mines when she heard a noise. 

Someone's foot, crunching on the dry soil. 

She grabbed her gun, hid behind a rock, not making a sound. 

An Alliance soldier stepped out in front of her. He was young, probably straight out of boot camp, and was holding his gun way too tightly. 

Zoe shifted to get a better shot. 

He heard her, looked around and spotted her. 

She jumped up and hit him over the head with her gun. He went down, bleeding, but struggled to get up and tore the weapon away from her. He punched her. She punched him back. 

She knew he couldn't take her. She punched hard anyway. Rage began to surge through her body like adrenaline and compelled her to carry on. 

Another punch, his nose was broken, bleeding, punch, screaming now, punch, crying out for mercy, punch, tears, punch, "Please, God!" he said... 

_Die, Alliance scum.___

She put a knee on his chest to hold him down, though it was hardly necessary at this point, and put her hands around his throat. 

_All___

Squeeze.__

_Your___

Squeeze.__

_Fault.___

Squeeze! 

"Damn you!" she cried, tears stinging her eyes as the light vanished from his. 

She kept punching him long after he was dead, all the pent up anger jumping at this chance to be expressed, until she collapsed, crying. 

After what seemed like an eternity she picked herself up and slowly headed back to find Mal. 

She felt sick. She could have just shot him; Lord knew she had more than enough ammo. But she had wanted to see the fear in this frightened little boy's eyes as the life drained from his face, drop by drop. 

She had killed more men than she could count, but she had never enjoyed it before. She had never done it just out of anger before, either. 

It wasn't a nice feeling. It was terrifying, in fact, to think that she was even capable of such a savage act. 

Mal realized something was up, but she brushed him aside. She couldn't tell him something like this. 

It could never happen again, she realized, through long nights of lying awake in what passed for a bed here, having given up on a good night's sleep weeks ago. She could never let herself become so consumed by anger again. 

Which meant that she should never be angry again. 

Cold, yes, cynical, yes, annoyed even, yes. But she promised herself she would never again let herself fall prey to such murderous urges. Because if she did it would destroy her, and she would be no better than the Reavers who had butchered her family. 

So at Serenity Valley she wasn't angry. She was depressed and dismayed, perhaps, but not angry. 

When her sister was raped and murdered by some fed with enough ties to let him get off without so much as a smudge to his reputation, Zoe was cheerless and frustrated. Never angry. 

When Wash got taken by Niska and couldn't sleep soundly for weeks after, she was sad. She couldn't let herself be angry.   


It wasn't until the Reavers took her husband and her children that she went over the edge and became one of them. 


	13. Everyone Has Nightmares

Challenge: 100 to 1000 words on "dreams"****

**Everyone Has Nightmares**

"Momma? Momma, I had a bad dream." 

Zoe groaned in response to her daughter's insistent tugging of the pillow. 

"Momma!" 

"I'm comin'," she mumbled, slowly disentangling herself from Wash, who was still deep into unconsciousness. 

"I need cocoa." 

"Oh, you do, do you?" Zoe looked around for her robe. 

"Uh-huh." 

"Was the dream really _that _bad?" She spotted the robe slung over the back of a chair and grabbed it, putting it on as she waited for the little girl to precede her up the ladder. 

"That bad." She nodded and gave her mother her plush dinosaur to hold while she climbed. 

"Well, if that's how bad it was..." Zoe climbed up second and gave the toy back once they were out of the bunk. Then she took her daughter's free hand and led her into the empty kitchen. 

They both squinted when Zoe turned on the light. The little girl clung to her tightly and didn't let go until Zoe needed both hands to find a pan to boil the water. While they waited for it to heat up Zoe found two mugs and let the child put a spoonful of cheap cocoa powder into each. Milo the dinosaur watched the water until it bubbled and then Zoe poured some into each mug. She picked them up and carried them into the common area. Her daughter turned off the light in the kitchen and hurried after her. A different light was flicked on instead and Zoe pulled the little girl onto her lap and gave her her cocoa. 

She took a sip of her own drink as her daughter slurped. She had drunk almost half the mug before she looked up at Zoe again. 

"Momma?" 

"Yes dear?" 

"Do you ever have nightmares?" 

"Everyone has nightmares, darlin'." 

"Even Jayne?" 

Zoe laughed. "Even Jayne." 

"Huh." The little girl sipped her drink thoughtfully. "So what do you have nightmares about?" 

"Ohh, you don't wanna know. Much too scary." 

"I ain't scared." 

"You were scared of _your_ nightmare." 

"But apart from _that_ I ain't scared. Tell me, Momma." 

"Oh-kay..." Zoe nodded and shifted her daughter's position on her lap. "I have nightmares about... loud noises. About everythin' goin' red. An' about losin' things; things an' people." 

The little girl blinked. "That's silly." 

Zoe smiled, amused. "Glad you think so, sweetie." 

"My dream was way scarier than that." 

"Oh yeah? What was it about?" 

"I dreamed that Roland grew to a billion feet high an' chased me all 'round Greenleaf tryin' to eat me." 

"Roland?" 

"Daddy's new dinosaur. You know, the brontosaurus." 

"Ahh. Well, you're right, that's much scarier than any of my dreams." 

The little girl finished her cocoa and put down her mug. "Told ya," she said, leaping off Zoe's lap and wiping her mouth with her sleeve. 

Zoe laughed. "Come on then, you, back to bed." 

They returned the mugs to the kitchen and rinsed them out. The little girl skipped back to her bed and Zoe tucked her in and kissed her and Milo the dinosaur goodnight. 

Then she lay back down next to Wash and dreamed of sunshine. 


	14. Reactions

Challenge: 100 to 1000 words on dreams 

**Reactions**

Sometimes Book dreams that the others know all about him and that it's all right and that everything is normal. 

Usually he dreams the opposite. Probably because the opposite is closer to what the reality would be if they ever found out who he had been only a few years previously. 

In his dreams, the look on Mal's face alone would give Book nightmares if he weren't already in one. 

Zoe is enraged, a state Book has never seen her in during his waking hours. She throws things and screams at him. 

Wash shouts insults, so colorful you could paint a rainbow of hatred with them. 

Jayne growls and bares his teeth. 

Simon just sits there, stunned, while Kaylee and River huddle crying in a corner. 

Inara's hand flies to her mouth; her eyes are wide with disbelief as she just stares at him for what seems like an eternity. 

The feeling of betrayal is evident on all their faces and he can't defend himself against their accusations. 

River tears pages from the Bible. "Doesn't make sense," she says, and he feels inclined to agree with her. 

They pick up guns, bigger than any he's seen them with before, and they hunt him through Serenity's corridors and into a desert, which is colored blue in the absence of sunlight. 

They begin to shoot and he struggles to find cover. The sound of gunfire mingles with the echoes of Adelei Niska's laughter. 

Usually he wakes up before they kill him, but sometimes he doesn't. On those occasions he awakens in a cold sweat, gasping for air, and wonders for the umpteenth time whether it wouldn't be better for everyone for him to just leave before they find out. 

And every time he finds that he can't bring himself to do it, and hates these people for making him care about them so much. 


	15. Introductions

Challenge: 100 to 1000 words on first impressions****

**Introductions**

The bunk was rather bare right now, with Kaylee's duffel bag being the only sign that anyone lived there at all. Still, it was bigger than her room back home and she didn't even have to share it with anyone. It was hers. 

The crew seemed nice enough, if not exactly the kind of people Kaylee was used to. The captain had been kind enough to give her the job in the first place and had welcomed her aboard warmly when he spotted her hesitantly walking up the ramp. He had been a little rough with Bester, though Kaylee supposed he had deserved it. He hadn't seemed that good a mechanic to her anyway, and when the captain had shoved him off the ramp after his belongings he had shouted all kinds of abuse at her. But the captain had seemed pretty pleased to have her here, and that thrilled Kaylee to no end. 

Zoe, the first mate... well, Kaylee wasn't quite sure what to think about her. She had nodded politely when the captain had introduced them, but Kaylee hadn't actually heard her say much yet. She wasn't like the women back home, whose thoughts you could read right off their faces most of the time. Kaylee didn't get the impression that she was shy or anything, just... reserved. It was a little disconcerting, though Kaylee was sure there wasn't any hostility or anything there. So that was okay. 

She probably liked Wash best. He had shown her 'round the ship and made her feel right at home. He had a kind of endearing goofiness about him; he had joked about Zoe's seriousness and made her not seem quite so alien. And he wasn't completely clueless about the mechanics of things, either, which was comforting, even though Kaylee didn't really think she would have any trouble there. She could tell that he really loved this ship. The way he flew her was magnificent. 

Kaylee was sure she was going to love her too. Serenity was just the kind of ship she had always wanted to be a part of. An honest-to-God real _Firefly_. She couldn't wait to get back inside her engines and get to work. 

Kaylee lay in her new bed and listened to the hum of the engines. 

Serenity was perfect. 


	16. Wartime Water Woes

Challenge: 100 to 1500 words on "water" (challenge from ff_chronicles) 

**Wartime Water Woes**

Mud. Lots and lots of mud. 

"Mornin' Sarge." 

The mud would be good for camouflage, if it didn't keep getting washed off by the pouring rain. 

"Mornin' Zoe. Nice weather, once again." 

I hadn't stopped raining since they'd gotten there. 

"If you say so, sir." 

Zoe took up her position beside him. Her boots made squelchy noises when she walked through the water that had gathered in the trench. It came up past her knees. 

"Any sun forecast yet?" 

She shook her head. 

"Well Zoe, looks like someone finally listened to you goin' on about wantin' a bath." 

"This ain't a bath, sir, it's a shower. And a gorram cold one at that. Only thing makes the trench fill up like a bath is the mussed up drainage system." 

"Zoe, the trench don't have a drainage system." 

"My point exactly. Anyway sir, you're probably needin' a cold shower right now, what with the way you keep lookin' at Private Norris." 

"_What_? The way I look at Private Norris is in no way different to the way I look at anyone else!" 

"If that were true, sir, you'd be needin' a cold shower every time you looked at _anyone_." 

"Wha-?!" Mal searched for a comeback for a moment, then sighed when he couldn't find one. Zoe looked smug. Then she sneezed, and they went back to complaining about the rain.   


A few months later. Different trench. Same Zoe. 

"Mornin' Sarge." 

"Mornin' Zoe. Any news on when we'll be gettin' some more water?" 

"No sir." She stood beside him, kicking up sand as she walked. 

"Darnit. Not much left to go around." 

"I noticed, sir." 

"Too gorram hot on this rock. Remember when we had two feet o' water in the trenches and more kept comin'?" 

"Yes sir." 

"Wish it was like that now." 

"No you don't, sir." 

"No, I don't." Mal sighed. "Seems we never have just the right amount o' water, don't it Zoe?" 

"Sure does, sir." 

They pulled their helmets down farther over their faces to shield their eyes from the sun.   


Years later. A ship now, no more trenches. Still the same Zoe. 

"Mornin' Cap'n." 

"Mornin' Zoe." He didn't look at her. 

"You still embarrassed, Cap'n?" 

"What? No! 'Bout what?" He still wasn't looking her in the eyes. 

"'Bout walkin' in on me an' Wash takin' a shower last night." 

"No, no, not at all..." He finally turned to look at her. "But you used up all the hot water!" 

"That may be, sir. Sorry." 

"You go 'round usin' up water like that, must mean we got too much of it." 

"No sir." Zoe grinned and looked at Wash, who was just entering the room. "I think we have just the right amount." 


	17. Real Bath

Challenge: water (from ff_chronicles)****

**Real Bath**

"So, is this bath real enough for you?" 

Zoe sighed contentedly and leaned back in the warm water. "Ohh yes." 

"Well good, because I had to sell my immortal soul to get it." 

Wash handed Zoe a glass of wine and she accepted it with raised eyebrows. "So now I'm married to a soulless monster?" 

"Darn, I didn't think of that." He shook his head. "Oh well, out of the bath then, if you think my soul is more important," he said, putting his own glass of wine back on the small table and reaching for the button to raise the plug. 

"Hey, not so fast!" Zoe waved his hand away before he could reach the button. "Ain't no way I'm gettin' out of this bath for at least another hour." 

"Even for my soul?" 

She closed her eyes and nodded. "Even for your soul." 

"Well, I would say 'hey!', but seeing as it's your birthday..." He picked up the glass of wine again thoughtfully. "Or, was your birthday yesterday, when we had that fun fire fight in that bar." 

"Wash..." 

"And then there was that whole thing with the broken glass getting embedded in various people's various limbs, that was fun..." 

"I remember, Wash, I was there." She looked at him. "I just don't wanna remember right _now_." 

"Sorry. It's just that, like Mal says, nothing ever goes smooth." 

"Well, maybe we should stop expectin' it to." 

"Maybe." Wash cleared his throat. "To not expecting things to go smooth," He said, raising his glass. "And to Zoe, who _is_ smooth." 

Zoe laughed. "And to real baths," she said, and raised her own glass. 

"That too." 

They sipped their wine. 

"Y'know," Wash said after a moment, "Watching you bathe is all good, but if you're not getting out for another hour I may just have to join you." 

Zoe shifted her position in the bath obligingly to make room for him. "Come on then." 

She grinned. 

"Wash me." 


	18. Just Leaving

**Just Leaving**

It was simple, in the end. 

They stood on the ramp in silence while Wash and Jayne loaded the last of her things into the vehicle she'd hired to get her... well, wherever it was she was going. She had told him her destination in only the vaguest of ways. Something about a friend of hers and a lovely place. "Quite adequate," was another expression she'd used to describe it. He still wasn't sure whether that meant that it was better or worse than she had wanted. 

Wash hugged her. "Take care of yourself," he said. 

"You too," she said. 

Jayne nodded at her. "Inara." 

She smiled. "Jayne." 

Then they were alone. 

They looked at each other. 

Silence. 

A warm breeze. Bright sunlight. 

"Well..." Mal said finally, looking away. 

"Yes," she said. 

He looked back and nodded. "Best of luck, then." 

"Thank you." 

"If you ever need anythin', y'know, just--" 

"I know," she interrupted, putting a hand on his arm. 

They looked at each other. He couldn't read her expression. He wondered if he should hug her, like Wash had, but... 

But she was already leaving. Removed her hand, composed herself... 

"Goodbye, Mal," she said. 

He tried to arrange his face into a smile. "Bye then." 

She nodded, then turned away and began walking down the ramp. 

He watched. 

Halfway down she stopped and looked back, as if she wanted to say something... 

Well, he wanted to say something too, it was just... 

He waved. 

He thought he saw her hesitate for a split second before she smiled again. 

Then she went, and all that was left was the breeze and the sun and the feeling that something had not gone quite as it should have done. 


End file.
